Meet the Geno family! Matt and Brynne Geno have been married for 3 years and have a one-year-old boy named Levi. Brynne works as a special education teacher and Matt is a chemical analyst in a chemical plant. They live in south Louisiana.

Both Matt and Brynne felt a call to adopt before getting married. Brynne served on two summer mission teams in Eastern Europe in 2012 and 2013. Matt served in Ukraine for 6 months doing mission work in 2013. Also, Matt’s younger sister is adopted from Ukraine. They have both felt called to adopt from Eastern Europe, specifically, due to their time serving the Lord there.

They have committed to a sweet two-year-old girl with an infectious smile. She is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and developmental delays. They are committed to her and currently wrapping up our home study. Thank you in advance for your generosity, and please keep them in your prayers!

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

6/1/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$48.50
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

The Lewandowski family are in the process of adopting an aged-out boy – or two – from Eastern Europe.

Kevin and Natalia met online. Both grew up in totally different communities, totally different surroundings, and totally different countries. Kevin was raised in family-oriented Polish community and has always seen his own role as a person who is supporting strong family bonds.

Growing up in a Ukrainian blue-collar family, Natalia always had a heart for those who were in need. Living and volunteering in Ukraine and the USA for multiple church and community services gave her opportunities to reach out to those who were living below the poverty level such as the elderly and people with disabilities. There was something special about Ukrainian orphans though that was always on her mind over the past 2 decades: orphanages are meant to provide shelter, clothes, and basic nutrition, but cannot ever be a substitute for real FAMILY.

Kevin and Natalia hosted a 16-year-old boy during the summer of 2019. It was not an easy summer, but it gave them a chance to feel an orphan’s emotional pain and trauma. Kevin and Natalia understand that it may take a lifetime to help their son learn to cope with the physical and emotional trauma caused by institutional and parental neglect. The other boy they are considering was also hosted but his family, after deciding to adopt, was not able to proceed. Other families that had been interested in this boy assumed he was being adopted, and by the time the family discovered they could not proceed, it was too late for another family to do anything because he had aged out.

Raising funds for a teenager’s adoption is not easy task, but both Natalia and Kevin strongly believe that they were called for this adoption and God will provide by using people’s hearts and hands. Please consider teaming up with this family in this financial challenge that will change ONE orphan’s life, or maybe even TWO.

5/28/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$126.10
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Rodney and Alisha Keim live in Atkinson, Nebraska with their children Josiah, Selah, Jeremiah, and Tallulah. Jeremiah was adopted from Thailand in 2015 and Tallulah from Asia in 2019. The family was first matched with Tallulah through her advocacy page at Reece’s Rainbow. In one of the photos, she was pictured with another little boy who also captured their hearts. Had it been possible to adopt them together, that would have been their desire. The family met Eli while in country finalizing the adoption of Tallulah in May of 2019.

Their “happy family” picture was taken at the orphanage. Just after the picture was taken, the Keim family left the orphanage with Tallulah. Just before the photo was taken, Eli was taken back to join the other kids without families, bawling. The Keim family longs for the day they can see him again, the day his friend will become his sister. They pray he will come to understand how much he was loved that day and that he holds a piece of their broken hearts in his.

The last piece of paperwork the family will need in order to submit their dossier has been sitting on a desk in the USCIS office since March (just before immigration biometrics offices shut down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic). The family asks for your prayer: perhaps the God who moves mountains can push that little piece of paper on through soon. They also ask you to consider giving a donation to help them bring Eli home! Rodney and Alisha are each self-employed by small businesses that have been impacted by the Coronavirus shutdowns. God continues to provide graciously for their every need… perhaps you are one way he will provide for the adoption of Eli!

5/26/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$121.25
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are the Rinehart family and we are adopting! This will be our third and final adoption from Asia. We have six grown children and multiple grandchildren. Our home and family are full of people and love. Our two youngest daughters (ages 8 & 6), adopted in 2017 and 2018, are eagerly awaiting their little sister! We began our adoption journey in 2016 after the Lord laid in on our hearts over a several year period to adopt. The journey was like chipping away at stone to reveal the diamond underneath. The first time we saw her picture we were hooked! Little did we know then that we would repeat the process two more times. Like her sisters before her, our newest little one has stolen our hearts and we know that she is our daughter! We hope to bring her home this fall. With all of the uncertainty in the world, we would appreciate your prayer. Please pray for our family to get through this process quickly and that travel would be safe and available when it comes time to travel. If the Holy Spirit moves you to donate, we would certainly appreciate that as well. Thank you!

5/18/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$97.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are Carrie and Ken Woods, parents of six children, four adopted from Asia and two biological. We met in high school and have been married for almost 34 years. Our children range in ages from 8 to 31 and we are also excited to soon be grandparents. We started our first adoption in 2000 and over the years we have been fortunate to grow our family one at a time. Our last adoption in 2015 started with looking at several files and came down to two beautiful girls. It was a difficult decision but we are thankful that we brought our new daughter home when we did because she has needed significant medical care over the last 5 years. Fate would have it that the file for the other little girl came to our attention at the end of last year and we felt we were in a place to move forward and bring her home. She has always been in our hearts and now she will be in our lives and loving home.

5/15/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$149.38
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Mollie doesn’t remember the exact moment when adoption was put on her heart and in her mind. But, she does remember it was all consuming. She tried to get away from it. But, she couldn’t. It was there and it wouldn’t go away. It was 2015. By early 2016 she finally worked up the nerve to bring it up to her husband, Bryan. It’s not that they didn’t talk often, or that they kept secrets. It’s that she thought he would think that she was crazy! You see… they had seven biological children and they thought they were done. Their family felt complete.

Earlier that year their youngest, at seven years old, had had open heart surgery. She had recovered and was doing great. Their oldest son was engaged to be married. Life was good. But, that nagging adoption thing wouldn’t go away. So she told him. And, the miracle of it all was that he had been thinking about it, too.

In April 2017, one month after their first grandchild was born, they came home with not one, but two sons from China. They were their pride and joy! But life wasn’t ever going to be the same. It was overwhelming! But, one day at a time, one sleepless night at a time, they got through it.

They went into adoption with their eyes wide open, or so they thought. In the end both boys, their sons, had needs that had been undiscovered. The words deaf and autism, and global delays were added to their family. But guess what? These were their children, the ones they fell in love with before they had ever met them! They held on because God knew what they needed. They needed to depend upon him totally. Three years later their adopted sons are thriving and their biological children have learned so much about love and the privilege to know people with special needs.

In 2020 that call to adopt has become strong in their family again. This time they have felt called to consider adopting a little girl with that beautiful extra chromosome. They want to add a child with Down syndrome to their family. And, once again it’s the same, that all consuming desire is there to give a child a family. Would you please pray God will make a way?

5/11/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$166.40
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Meet the Luckow family. They are finally excited to expand their family to a party of 3! Lauren and Drew were both born and raised in south Florida. After meeting through mutual friends they were inseparable. Moving forward to being happily married for 3 years, settling into their homes and careers, they have chosen to move forward with adoption.

In their hearts they have always wanted to adopt, and specifically adopt a child with Down syndrome. Over the past few years Lauren & Drew have volunteered with the Special Olympics, Starability and other local organizations. With spending time with the athletes and children, they knew they wanted to start growing their family with adoption, despite being able to conceive on their own.

They spent a lot of time educating themselves on international adoption and looking through advocacy websites. Coincidentally both Lauren and Drew came across “Clementine” through different advocacy sites and felt very strongly God saying, “This is your child.” This is just the start for the Luckow family. In time they would like to expand their family. Your support and prayers are greatly appreciated in this process. Thank you!

5/5/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$242.50
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are the Redfern Family. We have 9 children between the ages of 8-30 years old right now. Our oldest daughter is married and pregnant with our second grand baby. Our oldest son is finishing his masters and getting married this summer. One son lives in a neighboring town where he works. Our two oldest girls at home graduate from high school this year.

We are in process to bring home a sibling group from Eastern Europe. A boy and a girl. The girl has special needs. The children we hope to adopt are not on hold for us until our first trip. If they are not available then we will be shown other referrals of children matching our homestudy. Our prayer though is that this sibling group will be available for us. We are excited to be adding to our family. The cost of this adoption will be approximately $39,000 both children. This is why we have set a goal of $25,000.00. We have paid $10,000 of the cost so far and will be able to save another $5000.00 towards it. It’s hard to have garage sales, bake sales and such with a virus around. We will be applying for grants as soon as we can. If you can donate we would be forever grateful. If you can not, that is absolutely fine too! We know times are tough right now.

We would love prayer requests for the following issues if you feel led. 1) That this sibling group will be available as we love them already and they could be kept in the same orphanage until we can travel. This will save quite a bit of money (we have budgeted this way above believing that God will do this). That they are safe and fed until we can come and their hearts prepared to love a new family. That they can be adopted at the same time. 2) That this country would waive the 30 day waiting period, allowing me to make 2 trips instead of three. The area they are in have never waived it but other areas have. I believe it will for sure not happen if we don’t ask God. So I am asking him. 3) That He will prepare the hearts of the siblings at home. They are very excited. And that Torey and I would have wisdom to raise all our children to have a personal relationship with Christ and to love Him with their whole hearts. 4) That He would provide as He sees fit.

5/5/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$713.75
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

https://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.png00Michelle Zoromskihttps://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.pngMichelle Zoromski2020-05-05 20:29:032020-05-05 20:29:03Two Children for the Redfern family -- OR

Dave and Erin Briar have been blessed with eight children – two boys, five girls and one older “daughter-of-the-heart” – Alicia. Dave and Erin met Alicia at church while serving overseas in the US military. They quickly bonded with Alicia, invited her into their home, and “adopted” her at age 20. In essence, a daughter-of-the-heart. They love all their kids from oldest at age 28 to the youngest at age 12. Caliana will be a much-loved and welcome addition to their family — another daughter-of-the-heart.

The last five years have brought a lot of change to the Briars’ lives. Dave retired from active duty. The family moved back to their home in Tok, Alaska, where Dave works for an Alaska-based company. Several other aspects of their family situation changed and they felt the Lord wanted them to be doing something different. That ‘different’ was being introduced to Reece’s Rainbow by one of their daughters. From the very beginning Caliana caught Erin’s heart. After much prayer and talking it over as a family (who are all very much excited by another sister!) they have started the journey to bring home another daughter-of-the-heart!

Dave served in the US Air Force for 30+ years and the Briars moved around quite a bit before settling in Tok, Alaska. The Briars have lived in Texas, Delaware, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kansas, Nevada, Maryland, and Alaska. They also lived in Germany for six consecutive years and South Korea for a total of six years on three separate assignments. In addition, Dave did an unaccompanied tour in Honduras and two combat tours in Iraq. As a result, the Briars are no stranger to overseas living and culture. But living in a foreign country never slowed down their desire to grow their family. In fact, four of their children were born overseas – two in Germany and two in Korea. They feel that having a daughter born in Eastern Europe will further add to the international flavor of their family. And Caliana will ensure that the Briars born overseas outnumber those born in the US!

4/28/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$194.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are Jeff and Mollie, parents of 9 living children, as well as one, Hannah, who passed away in 1991. Three of our children still live at home, while the others are married and living independently, or in college. We have one grandson at this time! His name is Austin and he is two. He is the center of attention most of the time and we love opportunities for him to come and stay the night.

We met while Jeff attended college and Mollie’s mother met him in a bookstore and invited him to church. It was in church we met for the first time, became best friends, dated, and in March of 1978, we became engaged then married in 1979. We both had a calling from God to serve in some capacity in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. We moved to the area near Chicago and attended Bible college. After graduation, we began our career in the field of ministry. We’ve had the privilege of Pastoring 3 churches and working in a Bible college in Texas. We have been completely in love with each other and with our children. As a family we are actively busy serving in our churches in a variety of ways. We are a musical family of pianists, guitar playing and singing. Our family has known the satisfaction that comes in truly making a difference in the lives of those who need us in our communities and churches, from our seniors and our ministries to people with special needs, and those in our inner cities and nursing homes.

Our family loves to laugh and have fun but also practices our faith and applies a “person centered” approach with each of our family members. We are a family of a variety of backgrounds and races. We adopted our oldest son from Honduras and another daughter from Seattle who is part Eskimo Indian..
We do have our times of stress but have learned to talk things out and pray together about our differences and show love and support to each other.

What is important to us is making a difference in the lives of children with special needs. Our first born daughter Hannah, was born with Down syndrome. She died at age 4 after her 4th heart surgery. We were told we would never have more children and began to adopt. Then we had three more biological children! Each person in our family is so unique and plays a vital role in our family structure. Jeff is now a retired Pastor but does teaches others through an online Bible college. Mollie works with the state of Ohio as an independent provider for adults and children with special needs. We also have helped churches start ministries to include people with special needs within the congregation. We feel this is so vital today. Not long ago, we saw a photo and read the narrative on Vivi and wanted to help her so began to call families we knew. After not finding someone who would undertake this we decided why not us? We want to adopt her ourselves and pray Vivi can be a part of our family. This will more than likely be our last adoption as we are getting older! We know that God can open the door for us and make this happen and we would appreciate your prayers and support. We are both in good health and love our busy happy family life and feel Vivi would be loved and happy here!

4/24/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$305.55
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

*** The child the family is adopting has received a $5,000 Older Child Grant! ***

Hi there! We are the Park family, Bryce, Annie, Benson and Emmaline. We met through friends in 2009 and hit it off. After a cup of coffee and talking all night- the rest is history. We got married in 2011 and have since welcome 2 biological children into the world. We’ve fostered 2 children with disabilities and have always known there is a permanent place in our home and family for a child with special needs- who might not otherwise have one.

Most of our adult life has been spent taking care of people with disabilities in many capacities, from direct support, to foster care, to lifelong friendships. We have a passion caring for and loving people with disabilities.

We have been fortunate in our journey to parenthood, and we are looking to grow our family. We are finally in a place where the time is right for us to expand our love and give a deserving child a home. Our children are excited for their next brother or sister!

5/4/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$505.93
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Leah is a lifelong Navy sailor who grew up as a dependent and is now active duty. When she was a young girl living in Hawaii, her stay-at-home RN mother fostered several children under 2 who had special needs for a few months and one at a time while they were between more permanent homes. Even though she was only 5 years old at the time, she fell in love with a baby named Emily whose smile she can still remember and was old enough to understand that adopting meant adding a child who didn’t come out of my mommy’s tummy. Since then, adoption has been at the forefront of her mind when it comes to adding kids to a family of her own.

In 2015 while stationed on a ship, her church hosted an adoption agency that talked about older child adoption. They told her that even single women who work full time on a Navy ship can adopt. Leah knew that her time was coming when she would add to her family of one.

In January of 2019, a friend shared the Reece’s Rainbow page of a girl who was aging out and Leah felt the tug on her heart. She began prayerfully considering adoption in the near future and knew it was almost time. Almost one exact year later, another girl with the same special needs was shared to Facebook by a friend who had already completed an adoption for a child on Reece’s Rainbow and was working on her second. Leah knew it was time and began her home study that month.

First time international adoption can be a long and difficult process and the child that Leah is working toward adopting doesn’t have much time! Any kind of help is welcomed and appreciated and thanks to all who follow this journey to make the Davis family go from one to two!

4/14/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$574.10
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

James and Colleen met when Colleen was freshman and James was a junior, in college. We started dating five years after that and we married 2012. We found out in 2014 we couldn’t have children biologically. As it broke our hearts, we immediately knew we were meant to adopt. Before we got married, we spoke about the possibility of fostering and adoption, as Colleen knew as a young girl she wanted to adopt. At that time, we found Reece’s Rainbow, and instantly we found our son. We adopted Jacob in 2016 from Bulgaria and he will be 7 in July. Four years later, a little girl in Eastern Europe has our hearts and God has very clearly said go, just like what happened, four years ago.

4/8/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$1,636.76
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

The Reinecke family is no stranger to international special needs adoption. They returned from Eastern Europe last summer with their twin girls and are now ready to go back for a little boy!

Rebecca started researching international adoption while she was in college, knowing that with her own health conditions she might not be able to build a family in the traditional way. She already had three cousins added to her family through adoption and felt that this could be a good plan for her as well. She spent hours reading the blog “The Blessing of Verity” and fell in love with the idea of adopting a child with special needs. Years later, she became engaged to Brendyn and was listed for a pancreas transplant shortly after. Plans were in the works to build a family through both biological and adopted children and then a pancreas became available, which changed their lives forever, in the best and hardest ways possible. The surgery that was supposed to make conceiving easier, ended with complications that made carrying a child dangerous for mom and baby. Always planning on adopting anyway, they decided to move the plans for adoption to the forefront and began researching. Rebecca remembered that blog from so long ago and started sharing the idea with Brendyn who agreed that adopting a child with special needs would be something they were well situated to do with Rebecca’s nursing experience and personal experience with medical conditions. On July 17, 2018 Rebecca saw an advocacy post for 3.5 year old twins and they decided to get more information. It was love at first sight and they had the commitment paperwork with them to mail out on the first day of their honeymoon a couple weeks later. Twelve months after they saw the picture they brought Margo and Rose home to Wisconsin.

A few months after returning home with the twins, a little boy on Reece’s Rainbow named “Klein” started popping up on Rebecca’s newsfeed. She couldn’t help but notice how similar he was to Margo, who is completely blind from Retinopathy of Prematurity. He still had the light in his eyes that was quickly fading from Margo when they picked her up in July. He was sitting in a room familiar to the family and had the same black hair and dark eyes. They were not yet eligible to adopt and he became the first Reece’s Rainbow child that Rebecca advocated for. A couple months passed and he was still listed and tugging on Rebecca’s heartstrings. The time was coming when they would be eligible to adopt again and Rebecca brought him up to Brendyn and they requested more information. After much conversation, they decided it was meant to be and they signed on with their placing agency New Year’s Eve 2019. Since signing on with their agency they have dove into the paperwork and doing everything they can to get him home as quickly as possible. Rebecca, Brendyn, Margo, and Rose are all excited to welcome this little boy into their family!

3/30/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$1,302.95
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Brian and Stephanie’s family has been grown in nearly every way possible: biology, step parenting, foster care and international adoption. Eight of their children are “permanent members” but a handful of extras call them mom and dad from their years as foster parents and Brian and Stephanie love the crazy joy that their large family brings.

When they brought home their daughter, Nadya Rose, from Eastern Europe right before Christmas in 2018, Stephanie said “see you soon” to their daughter’s birth country as the plane took them home to America. Fulfilling that promise, the Higgins family is adopting another tiny “homie with an extra chromie” and are excited to watch their littlest daughter become a big sister to the little one they are affectionately calling “cheeks.”

3/30/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$2,177.65
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Brian and Julie Swegle are the parents of 7. After raising their 6 birth children, they decided that they were still young enough and brave enough to add more children to their family through adoption. Because Julie is a teacher for the visually impaired at a school for the deaf and the blind, they felt particularly equipped to parent children who are blind. So, 1.5 years ago they welcomed a daughter from China (who is deafblind) to their family. She was such a joyful addition to the family that they decided to grow their family through adoption for a second time.

Through a series of seemingly well-orchestrated circumstances, Madeline and her need for a family to adopt her immediately came to the attention of the Swegle family. When they read Madeline’s story they fell in love with her and realized how well she would fit into their growing family. Brian and Julie are hoping to bring Madeline home as quickly as possible. They are so grateful for the opportunity to be Madeline’s parents and for all those who are joining them in helping Madeline. Thank you for joining the Swegle family on their journey to Madeline!

3/20/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$559.25
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Chipper and Kinsley met how any normal millennial couple meets these days, in the Buffalo, New York, International Airport. The budding romance continued with a generic Facebook friend request a few days later which set the stage for an entire year of not talking at all. True love can never be denied, though. In the fall of 2013, one message led to another and, one week later, the two lovebirds were talking multiple hours every day, Chipper in Baltimore and Kinsley in Charleston. Chipper did the rational thing, having seen Kinsley once before in the airport, and drove down through the night to surprise Kinsley at church in South Carolina. Four months later, wasting no time, they were married in Rockville, Maryland, and the rest is history. Movie rights to the relationship story are owned by Disney… Just kidding.

They now have 5 children and live in suburban Atlanta. Chipper works for a Cyber Security Software company while Kinsley is a homemaker and homeschools the kids. They began looking into adoption a few years prior but between becoming pregnant and a few other things it was put on hold. In September of 2019, they saw a little boy they were drawn to and decided to pursue adopting. While they were unable to bring that little boy home, they were so thankful to find a specific country they wanted to pursue adopting from.

4/2/2020 — DOSSIER SUBMITTED

$755.35
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Hello! We are Madisen and Allen Crapo. We are so excited to finally be in this place and would love to share a small part of our story with you. When we were dating and things began to become serious, I (Madisen) brought up the possibility of adopting a child with DS in the future. I was nervous to hear his response, but he was equally as excited and on board. We always knew adoption would be part of our lives, though we didn’t know what a large part it would play. As teenagers, we were blessed with a beautiful little girl, who we chose to bless another family with. We were not prepared financially or emotionally at the time for a child and are so blessed with our new family. We were thrown into the adoption community, and we have learned so much.

Through our new found friends, we found Reece’s Rainbow. The plan was eventually, when everything was perfect, to adopt from an Eastern European country whose children we felt a strong pull to. God had other plans, and a few years ago placed a sweet boy in our hearts. We became determined to start the process much sooner than planned. We had to wade our way through school and starting careers while trying to wait patiently. We are so grateful that we saw his picture, while available, to give us that extra push to have faith. Though we know there is no guarantee of receiving his referral, we have already seen countless miracles in our process that confirm to us we are on the right path. Our daughter (5) is so nurturing and we are excited to see her welcome her new brother and become officially outnumbered (our son is 2). We are incredibly thankful for any help, both spiritual and financial, that you can provide!

3/4/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$1,019.40
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Phil and Maggie have been married for 10 years and have been blessed with 5 beautiful children, ages 9, 7, 6, 4, and 3. Phil is a writer and works from home. Maggie homeschools the children and the whole family gets to spend most of their time together, which is something they do not take for granted.

Maggie felt drawn toward adoption from a young age and, through experience with family members and through volunteering at a local organization that employs those with special needs, she developed a special love for those with Down syndrome. Phil has not always felt called to adoption, but Maggie asked him to pray about the possibility of adopting. Several years later, after finding out that his grandfather was adopted, Phil’s heart opened and he was on board. They both felt called to international adoption from the start and, through prayer and various circumstances, they discerned that God was leading them toward an Asian adoption.

There were three little boys that they felt drawn to during the referral process. Two of these boys had families hoping to adopt them once their home studies were approved, which gave Phil and Maggie peace about pursuing the third little boy. Something about his picture really grabbed their hearts and they were so excited that he might become a part of their family.

After a roller coaster of twists and turns and many months delay, they finally received pre-approval to adopt Chip. Their other children fell in love with him instantly and already consider him a part of the family. The 3-year-old loves to pray for “Chippy” and they can’t wait until they get to meet him face to face, as they feel like he has been in their hearts forever.

They feel so blessed to have been called to the beautiful journey of adoption. Financial hardships have been many throughout the process, but they are trusting that the Lord will provide for them as He always has. Thank you to anyone willing to assist in bringing their new son home! May God Bless you!

3/3/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$661.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are Jaime and Gary and we hope that our story can help you understand why we have chosen the wonderful yet difficult path of adoption. We are the parents to three internationally adopted children from China, Shawn 8, Ryan 5, and Robin 3. We are often asked why we chose to adopt internationally rather than have our own biological children. We answer them how Vernon Pierce, a pastor and foster parent, does. He describes the mirrors between adoption and Gods love. He says “I like to tell people that we were the people in the back of the filing cabinet with the red stamp saying: Do not adopt. You look at the file on humanity and it says: Prone to rejection, prone to running away, prone to disobedience. There is no reason why God should have loved us and yet God did love us. He set his love upon us and it was a redemptive love to reconcile us to himself, to restore us to himself and restoring a people to himself. We were meant to be part of the family of God. We fell away and God still brings us back to himself”. When we adopt, we willing to choose the “red stamps” of life; those who are hurt, both physically and emotionally. We as parents set our love upon them and watch as Gods redemptive and restorative power work through us to directly change our children. It’s a truly powerful and miraculous thing to watch. It is also why we believe that the most profound thing we can impart to our children is the love of Christ. While we set our love upon our children we also disciple them with this message, that it is only Jesus who can save and change a heart from the inside.

In 2012 we started our journey with the adoption of a 2-year-old boy, Shawn, born with a cleft lip/palate. We followed his adoption up with two others in 2016 and 2017. Ryan was adopted at 3 and was diagnosed with Lamb-Shaffer Syndrome, a rare genetic deletion causing intellectual disabilities, speech impairments, and ataxic muscle movements. Little Robin arrived home at the age of one. She was diagnosed with cleft lip/palate, a heart defect, and hearing loss. As with all institutionalized children, their early childhood trauma and fear manifests in various ways. We meet them where they are, set our love upon them and trust God to redeem and restore the broken, just as Christ does for us.

Each one of our children has their own individual stories. Yet, they all share a similar heritage and can relate to each other through their medical needs. While they recognize the others struggles or disabilities they don’t capitalize on them but overlook them; the abled helping the disabled, the better signer helping the non-verbal to communicate more effectively, playing as a sibling unit despite ability.
We are seeking to adopt Caleb, a 7-year-old with arthrogryposis. We had the privilege of speaking with Caleb’s American foster family and gaining insight into his personality. His foster parents describe Caleb as a peacemaker with a sweet personality. He tries to find ways to accomplish tasks on his own despite his physical disability. Caleb also lives with foster siblings that have a variety of needs, ranging from Trisomy 21, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, and Clefts. His foster parents feel that Caleb would thrive as a middle brother who could not only look up to his older brother but also be a helper to his younger siblings. Caleb is receiving excellent care at his healing home but cannot reach his full potential there. He has already had seven surgeries and will require several more to achieve greater range of motion in his extremities. We have a translated letter written by Caleb expressing his desire to be adopted. You can also hear the sadness in his voice as he feels overlooked while he watches all of his friends be adopted.

We are humbled that you have taken the time to read our profile and thank you as you consider donating to help us bring Caleb home!

2/26/2020 — DOSSIER SUBMITTED

$5,097.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Danny and Rachel Suero have been married for 8 years and have 3 biological children. They always wanted to adopt and have cared about orphans and adoption advocacy for many years. They strongly hoped to grow their family through adoption, but thought it would be at least a few years away. Everything changed one day in February when Rachel decided to visit the Reece’s Rainbow site as she had often done for years. This time was different because staring back from the computer screen was little Amelie. She experienced an instant gut feeling that this was her child. She decided to pray about it, but once she shared the information with Danny, he was completely on board as well! He agreed that they should ask for more information and try to adopt this beautiful little girl.

The Sueros have been very open to the possibility of adopting a second child at the same time as Amelie. They thought that they’d ask when they arrived in her country about any available children at the same orphanage. They had no idea that just a few days after committing to Amelie, a second little one, from a different region and living in an institution would find his way into their hearts. While scrolling through the Reece’s Rainbow Facebook group, there was little Kayson, a boy who has experienced far too much neglect in his 10 years of life and who has been confined to a crib and left alone. Something powerful overcame them again, and they found themselves desperately wanting to bring him home too, even through the fears and uncertainty.

Both Amelie and Kayson have certain special needs, some profound, that Danny and Rachel had previously not been open to. They live in a country that wasn’t one they had hoped to adopt from. And adopting them will mean going out of “birth order” which is sometimes frowned upon, they followed their hearts anyway. Not only are they now open to these ages, special needs, and country, but they find themselves thrilled that this is the path they’re on and that God’s plans were so much better than what they used to think they wanted. Door after door leading to these children have opened. They believe that the financial obstacles between them and their children will be overcome as well.

Their 3 biological children can’t wait for new siblings! While it’s overwhelming to have to come up with such a large amount, they believe that through lots of fundraising, some extreme budgeting, and the generosity of others, it will happen. Although it can feel like the process can’t move quickly enough, they know that everything is in God’s hands. Just like Amelie, and then Kayson came into their life at a time and in a way that they never would’ve expected, they’re trusting that the remainder of their adoption journey will unfold in His way and in His timing as well.

4/16/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$1,611.99
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

https://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.png00Michelle Zoromskihttps://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.pngMichelle Zoromski2020-02-24 20:51:182020-04-16 20:51:432 CHILDREN for the Suero family -- PA

William and Catrina are the parents of two, 7 and 8 years old. William and Catrina know each other for long time and met again in 2006. They went out on date in 2006 and marriage in 2008! They used live in New Jersey but moved to Wilmington Delaware. Their children are from China, and Deaf like their parents! Ethan Paul is Deaf also. They’re excited to welcome a little boy who has no family of his own. God gave them blessings to adopt another child, and to give their children best life and loving by the family and support!

4/28/2020 — DOSSIER EN ROUTE

$1,253.86
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

https://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.png00Michelle Zoromskihttps://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.pngMichelle Zoromski2020-02-21 14:53:132020-04-28 19:03:22ETHAN PAUL for the Nowrey family -- DE

The Marshall Family is adopting again! 2.5 years ago the Marshall’s welcomed Ping (Pepper on RR) and Liam into their family and went from a family of 4 to a family of 6. One year after bringing Ping and Liam home, Laura saw an advocacy post for a little boy. He was so tiny and had the most piercing eyes she had ever seen. His file indicated many medical issues and he had Down Syndrome just like Ping and Liam. The Marshall’s fell in love with him and rushed to get him home. Due to his needs he was medically expedited and came home January 25, 2019. It has been a busy year for the Marshall family and a year of great growth; physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Marshall Family now consists of Billy and Laura who have been married for almost 14 years, Tessa Grace 16 years old, Bella Charity 12 years old, Ping Joy 10 years old, Liam Worth 6 years old, and Asa Courage 4 years old. Recently, Laura and Billy felt the familiar tug towards adoption and discovered one of the little girls they have loved for a while is still waiting. They made some inquiries and decided she will be the next Marshall, Ember Faith “Emmy”. The Marshall’s are hoping to bring her home by the end of 2020 which will be 4 adoptions in 3.5 years! They are stepping out in faith that God will provide funding to help bring their daughter home where she will receive medical attention, nutrition, and LOVE! Thank you for joining the Marshall’s on their journey and supporting them with your prayers and donations.

4/13/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$1,697.69
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

In December of 2018, the Wallaces brought home their son Dima, adopted from an orphanage in Western Ukraine. He was the first child adopted from that institution. He has settled in well and is an amazing kiddo. He’s made major strides! But there are so many children still there waiting. One of Dima’s friends desperately wants a family and is about to “age out” which means he would be ineligible for adoption and would have to be in that institution for the rest of his life. His story is tragic and the thought of him never having a chance for life outside of the orphanage broke their hearts. They have started the process to bring him home to their family where he will be a loved son, and where he will receive therapy and education. He dreams of traveling, he loves learning, and best of all he will be able to be with his best friend Dima. Please help them to bring him home! Help to give him a hope and a future! They are so thankful for the community of love and support for him!

4/27/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$1,092.15
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Rusty and Kristin Kruse are the parents of seven children, ranging in age from 31 years old to seven years old. Rusty and Kristin met in the Army at Ft. Hood, Texas in 1994. They were married later the same year.They have lived in many different areas of the US.

Rusty recently retired from the Army and now works as a civilian on a military post. Kristin is working on a college degree in Biblical Studies. They are at a very stable, very blessed point in their lives, and have decided that they would like to share their love with a little boy in Eastern Europe who has no family of his own.

Kristin has been a prayer warrior for many children on Reece’s Rainbow for years, and has a deep love for orphaned little ones. She is so grateful to God for blessing her and her family with another child.

Rusty and Kristin ask for your prayers as they work to bring this adoption to completion, as well as prayers for the well-being of the tiny boy they are hoping to adopt. “Behold, children are a gift from the LORD…” Psalm 127:3

2/17/2020 — HOMESTUDY NEARLY COMPLETE

$97.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Doug and Adele met on a website, Catholicmatch.com! They were married a year later. Due to a cancer diagnosis early on before marriage, Adele did not know if she would be able to have children. Doug and Adele looked into adoption soon after marriage. Amazingly, within the first six months, a little boy was conceived, and so the adoption went on the back burner. After a second boy was born, they began the adoption process from China! Little Therese was a waiting child with “Lobster claw” syndrome and learning issues. She came along when she was two and a half years old, and joined the family! For the first six months, the Darnowskis did not realize that Therese was also hearing impaired. It was such a relief when they finally found out the diagnosis of LVAS and hearing impairment. It explained a lot! Seven more children came along after Therese. Among these were two sets of twins (back to back!) girls and then boys. God really has a sense of humour! Sometimes you really get what you pray for! They were extremely grateful for all of the amazing blessings that they knew they did not deserve. After a number of early miscarriages, and an empty place In their hearts, they attended the funeral of a little adopted boy with Down Syndrome who died of a severe heart defect, although his life expectancy far exceeded the doctor’s expectations. After talking to Max’s mother, and hearing that many of these children die alone in orphanages with no one to care at all, and after looking around the room at the funeral at all the love, and tears, and visitors and flowers offered for little Maximilian, the Darnowskis felt the tug to look into Reece’s Rainbow, and consider adoption again!

5/12/2020 — AWAITING USCIS APPROVAL

$13,172.26
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

https://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.png00Michelle Zoromskihttps://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.pngMichelle Zoromski2020-02-05 15:33:192020-05-12 19:28:333 Children for the Darnowski family -- IN

Nathan and Tina Scheid met in high school in their small hometown of Saranac, MI, and were married just a few years after. While they are from Michigan, Nathan’s career in the United States Marine Corps has taken them to several states that they have called home. They currently live in San Diego, California and Nathan works on Miramar Air Station. Tina has been able to stay home and take care of their children while they were little, and be there for them with their extra activities they are starting to enjoy now that they are getting older. They have three daughters, ages 14, 12. and 10, and their son Teddy, who is 6.

The Scheid’s actually found Teddy’s advocacy profile one day when they were scrolling through the list of waiting children on the Reece’s Rainbow website. They quickly started the adoption paperwork for him, and welcomed him into their family in March of 2016.

The Scheid family is so excited to announce they are adopting again. They can’t wait to bring another son into their family. Please pray for the health and safety of their new son they are in process for, and pray for the adoption process to be a smooth one.

5/26/2020 — DOSSIER EN ROUTE

$2,922.51
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

The Edwards are back for their 3rd adoption. They brought home Avalyn (Crystal on RR) in 2013 and Ian (Micah on RR) in 2018. They are both from the same orphanage in a small Asian country, and they both have Down syndrome.

Two months after Ian came home, Beth was on Facebook watching their agency’s Superkids trip to that same orphanage her children were in, because her friend was adopting her second kiddo with Down syndrome and the agency team was going to be seeing her on their trip. As Beth watched, a different little girl (Annabelle) came into the room with her infectious giggle and Beth’s heart jumped. She didn’t say anything to anybody, but instead started advocating for Annabelle by showing her to all of her friends and praying that God would send her a family. By summertime, nobody had come forward to become Annabelle’s family and Beth started to feel like maybe they were supposed to be her family. As much as she already loved this little girl, adopting another little one with Down syndrome felt pretty crazy and the pile of paperwork and the fundraising was something that she was not wanting to do ever again. Still, there was that little face that was already tugging at her heart. For every reason she could come up with for why they shouldn’t adopt again, there were so many more reasons why they should. There were so many ‘what ifs’ that floated through her head.

What if…
What if we hadn’t adopted Ian and Avalyn? What if we had not been open to Down syndrome? What if we had missed out on the beautiful journey? What if….

There were so many things we could’ve missed. Honestly, that idea is pretty devastating. We are so much better because of them. Honestly, we don’t deserve the gift of these children, but we’re so thankful that we get to be their family.

Still another adoption process felt pretty terrifying. One of Beth’s friend’s was talking about something entirely not adoption related and said something that stuck with Beth. She said, “Do it afraid.”

Beth mentioned it to Kyle. He gave the go ahead to send the initial email. With shaky hands on the keyboard, Beth sent that first email. The subject line was: We’re not crazy. I promise. Actually, in hindsight, it may be the teensiest bit crazy, but love makes you do crazy things sometimes.

So, here we are, completely afraid, but doing it anyway. We’re looking forward to getting to be this precious little girl’s family and we’re excited to watch those fears melt away as step by step we work our way through another process. In the end, we’ll remember how scary this was, but mostly we’ll know that love is greater than fear and some of the best things in life take a little crazy love.

Thank you for your support and joining us on this journey!

1/29/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE; COMPILING DOSSIER

$1,567.90
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

The Hickey Family is back again! We’re so excited to be called back on this journey for a very special someone. While we weren’t expecting to be back quite so soon, God had other plans for our family.

In October 2019, our family was blessed with our first child, Sofija, through international adoption. We had an instant connection and feeling of comfort when we met her, it was truly meant to be. Sofija is our absolute greatest blessing!

While in the process for Sofija, we became aware that Sofija had a best friend who had become like a brother to her. In March 2018, we received our last and final update prior to traveling to bring Sof home, and we were sent several photos where our daughter was accompanied by a little boy. We could instantly see the bond between the two children. We responded with excitement about the update on our daughter while simultaneously inquiring about the darling little boy. At the time, our hopes were that some day when he too was adopted, we would be able to keep the two children in contact. However, when we arrived in-country, we were made aware that while few families had inquired, no family ever committed to this worthy little guy.

We had the pleasure of spending time with him while we bonded with our daughter and we felt an instant connection; both between him and our Sof, as well as, between him and each of us. We learned that he and our daughter had been roommates since they were first born and have been nearly inseparable since. It was heartbreaking for us to leave him behind but we assured his team that we would come back, should he still be waiting when we are ready to adopt again. Fast forward to Sofija being home for a few months, and we received a very unexpected message from our team in-country that they not only wanted us to come back for this little boy, but they wanted us to reunite the two children as soon as possible. While completing back-to-back adoptions seemed logistically and financially impossible, we have continued to witness God open doors for us to bring our son home. God moved mountains for us to bring Sofija home and while these mountains seem much bigger this time around, we trust that He will continue to be faithful.

We are incredibly thankful for any help, both spiritual and financial, that you can provide!

5/28/2020 — DOSSIER COMPLETE; AWAITING USCIS APPROVAL

The Hickey family has a $5000 matching grant from RODS Racing! When their FSP reaches $6173, they’ll receive an additional $5000!

$6,147.02
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Meet the Carper family from central Pennsylvania. Jason and Candid met the 2nd day of their high school senior year in 2001 and have been together ever since. Jason and Candid were married after dating almost 4 years and Candid competed nursing school. They have 2 boys, Colton who is 11 and Jackson who is 6. They also have 2 labrador retrievers named Gracin and Hope and a cat named Callie. The Carper family enjoys camping with family and spending time together playing outside.

From a very young age, Candid could see people’s ability not their disability and has always been drawn to helping people. In 2007, she began researching adoption, but the timing was not right. She attended nursing school and worked in a long-term care facility for the first few years but felt called to pediatric nursing. She then went to work for an agency that provided care in children’s homes with special needs. After working 7 years for the agency she was blessed with their second son, however he would require a short-term NICU stay. She took time off to help him grow. When she returned to work, she started a new job as a school nurse at their local school district but always felt the call to return to special needs nursing. Candid returned to the pediatric home care and remains there taking care of children with multiple special needs. She has always felt the call from God to adopt but the timing was not right for their family due to caring for Jason’s grandmother for 7 years as well as 2 children.

Jason is the main family provider. He works very hard to be sure that his family is taken care of. Growing up with his grandparents and working on the family farm taught him many skills in life. Jason knows what unconditional love is and is looking forward to a new journey with a daughter.

Colton and Jackson both helped to care for their great-grandmother and showed great compassion in her care. They helped prepare her meals, attend medical appointments and hold her hand to guide her as she was blind. Both boys have been recognized in their school for helping others and having a loving heart. They are looking forward to a sister and being her protector.

In 2019, the call from God became greater and Candid began researching adoption again. She began praying for her family and for their future daughter. In July of 2019 she came across an advocacy post of a little girl with down syndrome. She then began having dreams of her and she just knew that she was who God had placed on her heart for her family to adopt. The Carper family began praying about adoption and in October they submitted their application to bring home a precious little girl.

They are now home study approved and have sent in their LOI and I-800A forms. Please pray for their family and little girl as they are excited to bring her home and become a family of 5.

3/13/2020 — DOSSIER IN TRANSLATION

$1,694.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Here is the Vierstra family! Kendall and Christinna recently adopted a wonderful little girl named Milana Grace (known as Dolly on Reece’s Rainbow). She has brought so much joy into our new home and has developed into a bright and loving little girl! Christinna has been working with Milana with physical therapy and she is getting stronger and more mobile every day.

Now Milana would love to have a little sister! She is also a special needs child from Eastern Europe who deserves to have a loving family. Please help them bring their little girl home. God bless you for being a great part in their journey!

1/16/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$163.95
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Meet the Howard Family! Greg and Angelina are college sweethearts who were on a mission to serve the Lord, wherever He may call. After graduating their first year, they got married and started their family. Before they had biological children they had a discussion that some time down the road, they hoped adoption would be a part of God’s story written on their family.

The Lord blessed them with 4 beautiful children, one of which has special needs. It was the most difficult time during their marriage when they found out that their son of 7-months had Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. Yet with all the unknowns of their future, they accepted their fragile child and trusted that God had a plan for them, despite the pain and hardship and 24/7 care for their son. They knew God would be faithful to their family even when things just didn’t make sense.

Angelina, who was born in Ukraine, realized how blessed they were to be living in America and had access to so many resources. They had a support system from doctors, school, family, church, and support groups. Unfortunately, in many Eastern Countries that is not the case and most parents with special needs children are encouraged to place them in orphanages.

The Howard family hearts were greatly burdened for other children just like their son that would never have access to the support and medical care that has allowed them to thrive. Throughout the last three years, they have been following other families through Reece’s Rainbow. Through this organization they have witnessed countless testimonies of such children being adopted into loving homes, provided medical care and love, and seen those children thrive as a result! Regardless of what condition a child is born with or what our limited perception of their abilities and potential of them are, they all belong in families.

Out of conviction, they simply began praying that God would so kindly show them how to move forward with adoption. More specifically, that the Lord will place a particular child in their hearts and show them who to adopt. One night after laying the children down to bed, they saw the profile of a certain boy and felt that confirming peace and love in an instant. They just knew that the Lord answered their prayer! Since then, they have not been able to escape the thought of how much Jesus loved them and gave His own life to them. We were all adopted into Gods family and they feel it is God’s love in them compelling them to love this boy unconditionally.

“We love because He first loved us” 1 John 4:19

Unfortunately, with international adoption there are many moving parts. Please consider partnering with them through prayer and financial support to bring their new son home.

3/13/2020 — AWAITING USCIS APPROVAL

$25.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Brian and Patrice met in 2009 shortly after Patrice moved to the area for her work with the federal government and the rest, as they say, is history. They were married by 2012 and are now the parents to three awesome kids: Gwen (age 6), Noel (age 4) and Jack (age 2) and one scruffy little dog named Scrapple.

Professionally, Brian is an elementary music teacher at an underprivileged school in Camden, NJ and Patrice is a Technical Expert for the Social Security Administration. However, what the couple really loves is being parents. The kids are never bored at the Gannon house – from guitar sing alongs with Daddy to sleepovers and designer pancake breakfasts with Mommy, there is never a dull moment. Game nights are a regular occurrence and small trips camping and to the beach are family traditions.

Although this is their first adoption, Brian and Patrice are both professionally experienced with special needs children and, in December 2018, received a diagnosis for their own oldest child. Gwen has always had trouble walking stairs and was thought to be simply less coordinated. It was not until her little sister began to eclipse her physical milestones that the family began to take notice. Gwen was formally evaluated for muscle weakness in kindergarten and, in a very quick turn of events, was referred to her pediatrician who stated that Gwen likely had terminal Muscular Dystrophy. This was a very challenging time for the Gannons. Priorities and purpose began to come into focus, and parent was right at the top. While ultimately, Gwen’s diagnosis was downgraded to a less severe form of Muscular Dystrophy, their urge to help other children stuck around. Patrice has always been an adoption advocate and has volunteered with foster kids for many years. Little did they know, they would soon see a picture of a boy who felt like their son. And so, their adoption journey began.

3/31/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$1,504.62
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Donnie has received a $2000 country specific grant!
Donnie has received a $5,386.93 Waiting Child Grant.

Dale and I first met in 2008 at the gym in where Dale was a spinning instructor and I was an admiring student. By day, I managed an aquarium and Dale built cool unmanned deep ocean gliders. We didn’t start dating until one Friday the 13th in 2012 and were fittingly married on Friday the 13th in May, 2016 at a beautiful waterfall in Connecticut. Two of our dogs, Trooper and Kopper served as our best men.

The end of 2016 and most of 2017 were rough for us as we lost some of our beloved animals and Dale’s adopted sister passed away unexpectedly. But 2017 also brought us a silver lining — one that redefined our definition of family and may change our lives forever. After his sister’s passing, Dale’s adopted brother came to live with us. We spent much of 2017 reconnecting with Dana, who was diagnosed with schizophrenic tendencies and other behaviors that would now fall on the spectrum for Autism as well as very poorly managed diabetes, and helping him get situated in an adult rehabilitation program that brought new purpose to his life.

Because he was such a great benefit to the program, they offered him housing in one of their newly built quadraplexes. Watching Dale’s brother grow and finally achieve a fulfilling life at 59 helped us realize that we might be able to help someone else.

As you can see in our photo, we have adopted several “handi-capable” dogs over the years. We’ve poured our love into them, but I’ve always felt like something else was missing. I have previously served as a respite provider for foster parents, and I know the need for caring parents and safe homes.

Dale and I have often thought about adoption, influenced by Dale’s experience as a younger brother to two adopted siblings and my experience fostering. However, I found myself in a job that required too many hours to bring a child home for good. If we were going to adopt, we knew we would both need to make some life changes.

I left the field of marine biology for interior design more than a year ago. Now, I’m able to leave work on time and don’t bring work home with me. We’ve moved to Florida and settled into a less hectic routine. There’s no time like now for us to grow our family, but we need help.

In October, Dale and I committed to adopting a beautiful 5-year-old girl from Asia. One night I was Googling “adopting children with special needs” and came across Reece’s Rainbow. I clicked on their waiting children link and started clicking through the various ages of children with Down syndrome. I remember being saddened by how many children there were and how long some of them have been waiting for a family of their own. As I scrolled through the “girls 3-5” I came across an adorable full face with the most genuine smile. Her name on the site is “Della” (we won’t know her real name until our home study is completed). I watched the videos that were posted and in all her videos she just seems to smile. Now her smile melts our hearts every time we watch the videos. We realize adopting a special needs child may require more work on our part, but there is no denying that our hearts are ready for this journey.

We have been working diligently on all the paperwork. Our home study is near completion, and we’re already researching all the best options to support for our daughter to ensure she blossoms in our care. We appreciate that you’ve read our family’s story and thank you in advance for anything you can give to bring us a step closer to uniting us with our new daughter.

1/14/2020 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$1,037.90
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Ross and Rachel were first introduced to international adoption, China specific, through Steven Curtis Chapman and his families’ journey of adoption. Ross and Rachel are both musicians and have always been inspired by Chapman and his music. What led them to their first consideration of international adoption was their struggle with infertility. At that time, they did not meet the adoption criteria so they continued to pray for the blessing of children. He answered, God blessed them with 2 wonderful children. Even as they had their first and second pregnancy, adoption was always something they desired to do.

Their son has Aspergers and Sensory Processing Disorder. They have had witnessed both trials and miracles through his disability. The valleys were tough, real tough…but the mountain views have been worth every moment of trial and hard work. Their son is now proactive and diligent in his academics making straight A’s, he is a respectful young man and has the kind of creativity one would only dream of having. Their daughter has the most beautiful pure heart of anyone they have ever known and has always friended the outcast due to her extreme passion for children with special needs. She has developed a new friendship with the little boy with trisomy 1 that Rachel babysat for 10 years through her high school/college years. With Ross and Rachel’s personal therapy experiences and with the heart of these two siblings, they thought it only appropriate to adopt a child with special needs. They are adopting Reeces Rainbow “Maura” who is 3 years old.

This family cannot wait to get their wildflower home! Due to all of her standing medical conditions, they are trying to set aside personal financial resources for post-adoption medical care while also fundraising and funding the adoption. They are looking forward to the day they hold her in their arms which is not too much longer away!

4/23/2020 — DOSSIER SUBMITTED

The Anglen family has a $5000 matching grant from RODS Racing! When their FSP reaches $5019.40, they’ll receive an additional $5000!

$4,222.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Jon Hamilton has always had a huge heart for taking care of others. He takes pride in the ability he has to defend the defenseless and care for those in need. Since becoming an adult he has devoted his life to taking care of others. Jon joined the Marine Corps right after graduating high school so he could serve his country. After returning from his second deployment he met his wife Jessica. The two started a family and he decided the deployments were not as family friendly as they hoped. After fulfilling his commitment with the Marines he immediately began pursuing his career in the medical field. After obtaining his Associates degree as a paramedic he went on to obtain his certification as a firefighter. Jon currently serves his community now as a professional firefighter and paramedic.

Jessica Hamilton has only ever dreamed of taking care of others and being a mother. She attended college to pursue her nursing degree but put it on hold to stay home and care for her children. She was once told “there is no higher calling than that of a mother.” She feels that God has blessed her tremendously as a mother and her job is to be the best mother she can. She says that being a mother is a never ending, more fulfilling job than ever imaginable. Jessica devotes her life entirely to being the best mother she possibly can.

Jon and Jessica had always talked about adopting one day but never thought it would be possible due to the financial aspect. Their priorities are not going to change. Money doesn’t come first in our household. Unfortunately Jon’s career in doing for others doesn’t pay as well as other careers may pay. And Jessica staying home with their children is a huge priority and obviously doesn’t pay monetarily at all. Knowing that things were not going to change drastically enough for them to afford an adoption they decided to put their faith in God to make it all possible. The entire family prays nightly that God provides for this adoption.

Jon and Jessica both share the desire to have a large family. Being able to raise their children to be respectful, kind hearted, christ following is very important to them. Both are very open with their children and they are all very excited to be able to add to their family through adoption.
They describe adopting as “a crazy long and expensive process that no one could have ever prepared them for, and certainly one they don’t think is possible without their faith”. Their case worker sent them a file for a beautiful little girl with Down syndrome, who is 19 months old. It was never about them wanting another child. It was about them wanting to share their love with another child, one that truly needed them. They hope to truly touch the life of others through Christ’s love. There are so many children out there who desperately need people to open their hearts and minds to special needs adoption. It shouldn’t be about what your child will be able to do for you but what you will able to do for your child.

They both feel the only obstacle for them will be the financial aspect. Jon and Jessica say how shocked they are already with how much support they have received from friends and some close family. Those who have given to their adoption so far, they know truly gave from the heart, certainly not just because they had the extra. It’s hard for them to ask for so much but they know it’s not really for them., it’s for their new daughter. They vow to spend the rest of their lives making sure she lives the happiest, most fulfilled life they can possibly give her. With what they lack financially to adopt, they make up for with love and determination. Both truly feel that where there’s a will, there’s a way. As long as they’re committed to do all they can, God will provide for them.

1/8/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$582.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Jacob and Jacqueline met in 2000 at a Spirituality Retreat in the Pocono’s. They had a traditional courtship and wrote letters for the first many months of dating. They were both clear that they wanted to have a family someday. Jacqueline was called to work with adults with developmental delays which she has been doing for over 23 years. Jacob is both an artist and an Activities Coordinator for an agency supporting adults with developmental delays.

Once it was clear that they were ready to start a family, Jacqueline knew in her heart that she was meant to be a stay at home mother. They didn’t know how they would be able to do that as they depended on 2 incomes just to get by. They decided to pray about it. A prayer that has seen them through so many times.

“Dear God, Show me Your will, Give me direction, and please make it obvious!” They prayed that prayer and literally the next work day, Jacqueline noticed her co-worker looked really sad. Jacqueline asked if there was any way she could help. Her co-worker replied with her head in her hand, “Only if you have a place in your home for my client to sleep tonight for an emergency placement!” Jacqueline knew at that moment that was something she could offer. She called Jacob and he agreed. That was 12 years ago. What was going to be one overnight turned into a lasting, meant to be situation. It is considered adult foster care here in Vermont. The tax free stipend allowed Jacqueline to work from home by supporting a lovely woman with a developmental delay, while also being a stay at home mom.

When their first child was born they found out that he had a rare medical condition. They did everything they could to offer their child all the care he needed. It was a very challenging beginning. Their faith in God carried them through. Though they had a 50/50 chance of passing this gene on with another pregnancy, they loved parenting so much and truly felt called to have another baby. This time, a baby girl. Their children are now 8 and 10 years old and are best friends. Jacqueline homeschools the children and they have welcomed another woman with developmental delay into their home 6 years ago. Supporting and volunteering with Special Olympics is a big part of this families activities.

The support group they are involved with posted a child who needed to be adopted. Jacqueline showed Jacob, and the next morning Jacqueline called the listing adoption agency. They are now officially matched with Luke. Everything seems to be moving at lightning speed. Luke turns 13 this February. The family is working very hard every day to prepare for welcoming a new child to their family.

1/8/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$777.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Susan knew that one day she would build her family through adoption after watching a 20/20 episode on an orphanage in Romania back when was she was 11 years old. Susan grew up with a sister that is 13 years older than her and always longed to have a large family. Grant was raised in a larger family and knew that he wanted a large family of his own. Susan shared her passion for adoption when she first started dating Grant. When Grant and Susan got married they came into the relationship with two biological children each making them a blended family.

They have now been through the international adoption process twice. Their first adoption was their son Soo Min who was adopted from South Korea in 2008 when he was 3 ½ years old. Soo Min has a form of primordial dwarfism, failure to thrive, and PDA. He is doing amazingly well, thriving, and bringing our family so much joy. Grant and Susan started their last adoption in 2014 with hopes to bring home their daughter, Eden, from Ghana. They traveled there, had her in their care for two weeks and even passed court. What they did not know was that everything was falsified information and she was never legally adoptable. To say they were all heartbroken was an understatement. One month after losing Eden, Susan became pregnant with their son Hudson. It is amazing the way God works.

This decision to adopt again wasn’t taken lightly. The decision this time around had many things to consider and time needing to heal from the failed adoption in 2015. Knowing and understanding the permanence of adoption is why the last time was so painful: Eden is still somewhat part of the family, and the reason the Lee children always say there’s eight children in the family. The Lee family started to pray about adoption again and researched programs that have a long history of success. This is what led them to Asia this time. Susan would lay in bed for hours scrolling through Reese’s rainbow looking at children waiting to be adopted. When Susan saw Alisa, she knew she was her daughter. She went back and forth between many kids and something was calling the Lee family to Alisa. They have a current Home-Study, have submitted their I-800A, and are compiling their dossier paperwork.

3/13/2020 — DOSSIER LOGGED IN

$497.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

In February, we felt a tug on our hearts that we were being called to pursue adoption. We immediately began praying and trying to determine which route of adoption was best for our family. After looking at all the opportunities available, we felt that international adoption was the best fit for our family.

At first, we felt that we were being called to pursue a child in China. We started researching and found that we would not be able to start the process until December because of China’s requirements regarding the age of your youngest child. However, we still felt that China was where we were meant to go, so we spent time praying and learning about what the future would hold for our family. During this time, we felt very strongly that we were being called to pursue a child with Down syndrome. Children with Down syndrome in other parts of the world often face deplorable conditions and are institutionalized once they age out of the orphanage system.

At the end of May, Sarah received an email with a picture of a little boy who lives in Eastern Europe. We were immediately drawn to his big brown eyes and his sweet smile. We knew the decision to pursue him would totally turn our plan upside down, but we also had no doubt that he was meant to be our son. On June 4, we submitted our letter of commitment. On July 1, the foreign government approved our commitment application! Now, it’s time to work hard to get our sweet boy home! We have decided to name him Alek. “Alek” is part of his birth name, and we wanted him to have a connection to his heritage.

We do not personally know Alek yet. What we do know is this: He has never had a momma to snuggle with him the morning. He has never experienced having his daddy read him a bedtime story. He doesn’t know what it feels like to snuggle up next to his sisters during a family movie night. He doesn’t have a favorite blanket or stuffed animal that he takes with him everywhere he goes. He has never known the love of a family, and we cannot wait to share that with him!

3/11/2020 — COURT PASSED! AWAITING TRIP HOME

$24.85
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Jim and Katya came from completely different worlds. Jim was born and raised in the Midwestern United States and he rarely traveled. Katya is from Russia and loved to travel. She spent the summer of 1998 working at a bed and breakfast in the U.S. She returned to Russia in the fall of 1998 to complete her degree not sure if she would ever come back. But, in the summer of 2000 she got the chance to return to the U.S. and that’s where things got interesting.

Jim and Katya met while taking a class at a local university in 2001, and have been together ever since. They married in 2003 and have six wonderful children ranging in age from 5 to 15. Their belief that children are a great blessing from God has led them to proceed with the adoption of Simon, a beautiful 3-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis and developmental delays.

When Simon arrives, he will find three brothers and three sisters who have been waiting anxiously to welcome him into a loving home. A home that has a strong faith in Jesus Christ. A home that has received many blessings and graces from the Lord and believes that it is their duty to share those blessings and graces with others.

Simon was the 6th pregnancy of his mother, and fittingly, will be the youngest of seven once he arrives home. And when he does, the Bukowski family will once again be very humbled and grateful for God’s continued blessings on them.

Jim and Katya ask that you pray for their family’s adoption, and for the health of Simon during this process and beyond as he desperately needs medical care that is inaccessible in his birth country. There will also be the high cost of ongoing medical care once he comes home. The Bukowski family will be eternally grateful for any prayers and assistance you can provide. May God continue to bless the entire Reece’s Rainbow community.

5/26/2020 — COURT PASSED!

$386.06
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

It is with a joyful heart that I share with you the journey that Kourtney and Josh Chavira are on. It has always been heavy on both Josh and Kourtney’s hearts to one day adopt a child, which is no surprise to the people who know them! Josh has served 6 years in the United States Army, including two deployments to Afghanistan and Kuwait. While serving in the military and being away from his home and loved ones, Josh held on to the knowledge that nothing is more important than family. It is then that he confirmed the passion he felt to adopt and give a child a loving family that every child so deserves to experience. Kourtney has supported and often started up fundraisers to benefit special needs children who need assistance with medical bills, equipment for physical therapy, surgeries, etc. Many of these fundraisers were very successful for the families. Kourtney followed her dream of becoming a registered nurse. During her first year in her new career, Kourtney had the privilege of working in the homes and caring for families who had special needs children each day. This daily experience has only made the desire to adopt grow more and more for Kourtney.

Josh and Kourtney have been trying to have a baby since they became married in 2017. With no success, they sought medical advice. Kourtney was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). Kourtney and Josh are hopeful that with treatment, they will one day be able to conceive a baby. During this wait, they feel called to open up their hearts and home to a sweet baby boy with Spina Bifida.

If you find it in your hearts to help Josh and Kourtney at this time, it will not go unnoticed. Even by just sharing their story and spreading the word, they will be forever grateful.

12/23/2019 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$248.80
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Michael and Jade met at work and soon fell in love. When they knew they were getting serious, Jade expressed to Michael her long time desire to adopt a special needs child internationally. Michael said that he would also love to adopt. After a very short engagement, they eloped in Hawaii on the Island of Kauai. When they climbed the cliff at Keoneoloa bay to take some wedding photographs, Jade looked up at the moon and remarked to Michael and their photographer that she felt they had a daughter near, but also felt that she was very far away. She brushed the feeling out of her mind for the time being but thought of it from time to time.

When they returned home to their now blended family of 5 children, they discussed if they wanted to have a child biologically. They decided they would try and were blessed to become pregnant very quickly. Unfortunately when Jade was several weeks pregnant, they found that their little baby had passed away. They opted to have testing done and found that their baby had some chromosomal issues. A few weeks later, they decided to go ahead and try again and were blessed to become pregnant with their son, Corbin Anthony, who was born several weeks early. They moved when Corbin was 2 weeks old into a larger home to accommodate their growing family. Jade would often look through waiting child profiles on Reece’s Rainbow. In August of 2019, she happened to look through waiting little girls with Down Syndrome. She came across Perla’s photo and something jumped out at her and said “This one.” Jade saw that her birthday was in 2017 and thought that adopting out of birth order would be too hard, so she ignored her intuition. Through this time, Jade advocated for Perla, asking friends to consider opening their homes and hearts to adoption. She prayed a lot, and thought that they may pursue another waiting child, but her and Michael never felt completely peaceful about it.

One day Jade had received a message from a woman that she did not know asking her if she would like to adopt Perla. Jade told her that she would love to, but was not sure about the logistics of an out of birth order adoption. Jade was able to get the information she needed and asked Michael what he thought. He said he would love to adopt Perla, and once they came to that decision, they both felt peace beyond understanding. Also, Perla was born in the month that they got married, so they took it as a sign that she was the daughter Jade felt was near. Michael and Jade are aware that things are not always guaranteed in adoption, and have decided that if for some reason they are unable to continue to pursue the adoption of Perla, they will choose to adopt another child with Down Syndrome in that country. They are excited to bring their new daughter home, and their children are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their baby (and big) sister.

5/18/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$3,209.22
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

The Hamlet family had a baby girl named Saraiah in 2010 with Down syndrome and multiple heart defects. She was not given a long life expectancy. After hours of praying and talking to doctors, they were told their daughter did not have a chance at life and they should wait for her to pass away peacefully within a couple of days. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. The doctors were amazed at her prognosis, and she continued to rally. They almost lost her a few times in the first year of life, but each time a miracle took place and she recovered. After age 3 doctors said she could live well into her 20’s or 30’s with how well she was doing. They had never seen a child with her condition live past a few days old without surgery. In 2018, at the age of 8 she passed away in her sleep. Shortly after, the H amlets felt that God impressed upon them to adopt a baby with Down syndrome. Veronica, had followed Reeces Rainbow for some time, eagerly praying for her husband to commit to adoption. After a silent prayer, Veronicas husband called, expressing his desire to adopt a child with DS. It was in this moment they both felt sure of the calling that God had placed on their life. They have sought the adoption of a baby girl from Eastern Europe with Down Syndrome. Their entire family (3 kids) are excited to bring their baby sister home. Please pray for them as they patiently wait to submit their dossier.

4/13/2020 — DOSSIER SUBMITTED

$8,890.85
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are the McCallums! Corey and I met in 2005, were married in 2008, and have four sons age 3-10. Corey is one of 5 kids, one having Downs Syndrome, and I am one of 13 kids, some of them adopted. We had always talked about adoption, since I grew up around it, it was always something I considered. With Corey having a special needs brother, we were open to special needs adoption but I figured we’d do it the “easy” way and find a child locally!

A few years ago I found myself on the Reece’s Rainbow website and was aimlessly scrolling through profiles. One profile caught my eye, a little girl with blonde hair and big blue eyes. But my eyes then drifted to her location and list of diagnoses and I almost immediately decided that was not the ideal situation for us. I had zero desire to go to Eastern Europe and I had never even heard of some of her diagnoses! I tried to put her out of my mind but I couldn’t. As time went on, people were put in my life that helped me see that all these things that were scary to me were completely doable! I kept telling myself she’s so cute, someone else will go get her. One night I reminded myself of that and I so clearly heard God say “YOU go get her.” From that moment on I decided I would do everything in my power to do so! I made my “presentation” to Corey and to my surprise he didn’t look at me like I was crazy. We made the decision to commit to her that night and sent paperwork the next morning! The process has had a lot of ups and downs with us and has taken longer than I would have wanted. But at the end of the day, it will all be worth it to get her home and settled into a life with her very excited brothers!

12/4/2019 — HOMESTUDY in PROCESS

$147.44
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Jared and I got married on October 1st 2011. After only knowing each other for a couple of months. We started our new life together in Hawaii with our son Tayler who was 8 years old at the time. Jared joined the Army in 2008. He has had 3 deployments (soon to be 4) countless rotations and months of school. We have moved together as a family 5 times in these last 8 years (it feels like more!)

We had Matthew in 2013, Noah in 2015 and in 2017 we were pregnant again! I went in for a gender scan and found out we were finally having our girl!!! (I also had another son in 2005 that passed away from SIDS). We had a wonderful announcement with a piñata that the kids got to hit, filed with everything pink! The very next day I got a phone call that would change our lives forever.

The ultrasound tech that did the gender scan saw some fluid on the back of our daughters neck. A couple days later we went to see the MFM and found out she had a Cystic Hygroma and hydrops. We were told she either had Turner Syndrome or Down syndrome and would likely not make it. We were recommended to terminate the pregnancy. I told him to never mention that to me again, how dare him! After testing, it was confirmed that she had Turner Syndrome. We prayed so hard for our girl and had so many people praying as well. A couple weeks later, the hydrops was gone and the Hygroma was resolving. Our daughter was born in September 2017. She is part of the 1-2% that make it to birth. We are so blessed.

We have talked about adoption on and off over the years. We thought it would be much later down the road. But other plans were in the making for us.

A friend of mine messaged me telling me about a little girl with TS that was an orphan living in Eastern Europe. I immediately fell in love with her and shared her story all over FB. She was absolutely beautiful she has a full head of beautiful dark hair, the prettiest eye lashes and a smile that can brighten anyone’s day. Everyday I’d look at her pictures, think about her and pray for her.. I felt such a strong bond to her, I just knew she was my daughter. After talking to Jared, we decided to bring her into our family. Our boys are so excited and our daughter looks at her pictures and calls her sister. They ask about her everyday and look at her pictures. We can’t wait to have her home!

5/22/2020 — HOMESTUDY COMPLETE

$1,219.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

The Slate family has received a $2000 grant for the girl they are adopting.

When Scott saw a post about hosting orphans he knew God wanted us to do it. I thought he was crazy, but I quickly got on board. In just 8 short weeks we were hosting 15 year old Lena for the summer. Before we even met her God confirmed that Scott and I would be adopting her and making her a permanent part of our family, so we filed the required paperwork the week before Lena came to America. It was just in time; we had file it before she turned 16, and she celebrated her Sweet 16 after her second week with us! Part of this process required us to ask Lena if she wanted to be adopted, hearing her say yes was one of the greatest moments of my life. She has become our daughter, and seeing us together shows our mutual love in a way that shocked even me. We adore her…and we are so glad we listened to God’s calling.

This past week, as we are waiting for the approval from USCIS for Lena, an urgent call went out for parents to say yes to adopting a little boy with unspecified brain damage and congenital cataracts. His advocacy name is Oakley and we had seen his profile before, but we figured he would have parents committed in no time—just look at that smile! However, no one has come forward yet. We knew when seeing the new post that God was once again speaking and saying we were meant to be his parents.

Oakley is being transferred at the end of the year to an adult institution for people with special needs, and Oakley, this precious boy, is only four. The urgent post we received said he was not likely to survive in the institution if and when he was transferred there. Scott and I talked and prayed over the matter through the week, and then with God’s prompting committed to being Oakley’s parents. Our hearts are overjoyed! However, with this added joy comes an added expense which we are fundraising for in an attempt to make all of this that God has laid on our hearts possible.

The total for both adoptions is estimated to be $55,000; to this point we have spent $17,635. Next, we urgently need $15,400 which is needed for the team in country. The expenses up to this point do not include travel, lodging, and all of the other expenses we will incur with lost time at work and the variables that come with along with that and international travel.

We have three required trips to Eastern Europe as part of the adoption process. We firmly believe that God has asked, and God will provide. All of this is giving you a picture of the process we are going through, and because of the expenses we ask that you would please consider making a tax deductible donation to bring Lena and Oakley home. No amount is too small and we ask that you give what you are comfortable with knowing that it is truly changing lives. Thank you so much for anything you can do, and may God bless you for caring.

3/12/2020 — REFERRALS ACCEPTED; AWAITING COURT

$392.12
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Tim and Julie Whitten have been married for 17 years and have been blessed with three beautiful children, Mason (12), Molly (8) and Pedro (4). Tim has worked in ministry for several years and most recently works for the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church as a Hurricane Recovery Director helping families impacted by Hurricane Florence rebuild their homes. Julie has owned a graphic design and promotional company for almost 20 years. Her job provides flexibility to work from home and set her own hours, which allows her the ability to stay home with their children. Through her job, she can also use her artistic talents and creativity. Both Julie and Tim enjoy art, Julie enjoys painting while Tim is an accomplished potter.

The Whitten family has always had a heart for missions. By giving their lives and hearts to God, He has opened their eyes to the needs in the world and helped them move out of their comfort zone. Through this, Pedro was brought into their lives when he was 6 months old, during a mission trip to Haiti. Pedro has significant special needs and the Whittens have repeatedly watched God step into their lives meeting challenge after challenge. Pedro is well loved, enjoys life and the entire family has grown in their faith exponentially.

When the Whittens look into the precious face of Chrissie, and each of the orphaned children, they remember that God tells us not to let the world pollute our thoughts, but to remain focused on God and what He commands us to do, especially to care for orphans and widows. They find strength in the knowledge that Jesus would not be sitting on the couch, but instead be in the orphanage holding those children, His children, who do not have a person to claim them as their own. The Whittens have been blessed with two biological children and claimed one child as their own through adoption. They have experienced first hand the love of God with each child and realize that He lives and loves in the hard times. They welcome and embrace each challenge as it allows them to experience God more.

5/29/2020 — DOSSIER COMPLETE

$20,492.32
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Meet the Romero Family! Omar and Trisha met in 2008 and began dating that Fall. Together they enjoyed running/exercising, traveling, dancing and doing local wine tastings. In 2012, they got married, and were blessed to quickly start a family. They live in the Midwest with their 3 biological sons – Mateo (6), Luca (4) and Cruz (1). They also have 3 small dogs (Italian Greyhounds).

During Cruz’s pregnancy, they did a blood test to find out his gender but ended up finding out a lot more. They found out that he was very likely to have Down syndrome. The news was very tough and quite devastating initially since they didn’t know anything about Down syndrome and what that would mean for their son. After allowing themselves to cry and mourn the loss of the child they had thought they were having, they wiped away their tears and committed to be the best parents that they could be to their son. They spent the rest of the pregnancy learning about Down syndrome, making connections with other families that had children with Down syndrome and preparing for his arrival. The moment that Cruz was born was unforgettable to them and they realized that he was exactly what they needed the whole time. Cruz is cherished very much by the whole family and has taught everyone so much already about acceptance and faith!

After having Cruz, Omar and Trisha learned that many children like him end up without a family just because they have Down syndrome. They began discussing the idea of international adoption, looking at some of the children that were waiting, and knew that someday when the time was right that they would bring home a child with Down syndrome and provide them with a family, a home and most importantly LOVE!

In mid-November, Trisha came across a beautiful baby girl in Eastern Europe and without hesitation knew she was meant for their family. The Romeros are thrilled to be on this journey to bring home a daughter that will be loved and cherished by all! They know the international adoption road is long and costly and they would be so appreciative and grateful for any support!

3/3/2020 — DOSSIER SUBMITTED

The Romero family has net their $5000 matching grant from RODS Racing!

$8,496.29
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Tim (James) and Jennifer Hayden have been married for almost 5 years. Tim has 2 adult children from a previous marriage, and Jennifer has 4 children ranging in age from 14 to 20 years old. Jennifer is an RN who has worked with children with special needs since high school, and Tim has a natural gift with people that have extra challenges. One of Jennifer’s daughters was adopted from Uzbekistan 10 years ago and has taught this family a great deal about the world of special needs parenting. In fact, it was during her involvement in the Special Olympics that Tim and Jennifer fell in love with children and adults with Down Syndrome.

With all their children growing up, Tim and Jennifer felt that God was telling their hearts that they weren’t quite done with parenting. Out of a wish to give a child a family that needs one and also the desire to have the experience of raising a child together, they believe adoption is the best way to accomplish this. With Jennifer’s past experience with international adoption, and many friends in their church family coming from Asian heritage, adopting from China seemed a natural fit. After years of following Reece’s Rainbow’s ministry, they fell in love with LOUIS several months ago and prayed for him to be their son if it was God’s will. After many months of preparation, they have now been pre-approved for his adoption!

3/16/2020 — AWAITING TRAVELING DATES

$339.50
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Hello we are Kurt and Cyndi Petrich. We have been married four years. We have 5 beautiful children, four biological children and one that God placed in our hearts 2 years ago. We were both widowed late in life. The Lord brought us together when we both said, “yes” to a mission trip to serve special needs orphans in Eastern Europe. We met on the mission field. We fell in love with each other and the precious forgotten children. We came home from our missions’ trip, were married and have been serving these children ever since.

While on an extended missions’ trip we met a beautiful brown eyed little girl, who stole our hearts. God placed our sweet Dasha in our family in 2018. Upon our arrival home, our daughter started to pray every night in her native language, “Praise God, My God, please bring my best friend home.” Night after night she would pray the same prayer over and over again. We knew immediately God was calling us to grow our family once again. During this time, we learned about a sibling to this child. We were thrilled to find both girls on the Reece’s Rainbow list of available children. We prayed again fervently. Once again, God lead us to say, “Yes” to both children.”

Dasha has been home for over a year and the transformation we have witnessed has been nothing short of a miracle. She is loved and knows how to love. She wants her best friend and sister to become her own sisters and experience the love of a family. We wholeheartedly believe God’s Word that says, Psalm 68: 5-6 “God sets the lonely in families.”

We openly admit and profess adoption has deepened our faith and understanding of God’s deep love and affection for his children. We watched God do the miraculous during the journey of adoption with Dasha. He showed us again, again He is faithful. Our prayer is hearts would be moved to help us bring these girls home. Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for HE who promised is faithful.

4/6/2020 — DOSSIER NEARLY COMPLETE

$5,283.49
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are Galen & Yalonda Horst. We have been married 21 blessed years and God has touched our hearts and lives with 7 children; 4 biological children and 3 through the miracle of adoption. Our first 2 adoptions were from Guatemala and the last one was from China.

Adoption has touched our hearts and lives in a way that has changed us tremendously. We never dreamed, when we did our first 2 adoptions from Guatemala, that God would lead us to adopt a child from China who has Down Syndrome, but it has been another beautiful experience!

The transformation that Kyla has made in the past 2 years is nothing short of amazing! It was beautiful to see her personality unfold and come alive after coming to us as an unresponsive, shutdown, infant-like 2 year old. Now 2 years later she is hardly recognizable as the same child! She is so full of love, mischief, and humor!

So when another sweet little girl with Down Syndrome jumped off an advocacy page at us, we prayed fervently for an answer as to whether or not this was truly God calling us again. After much prayer, we felt God was telling us to step forward. So… we’re on our way to Asia again!

Our prayer for Kristi: “I pray that God would hold you in His arms until I can hold you in mine own!”

5/8/2020 — LOA RECEIVED

$2,304.72
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Hi! We are the Garrett Family! First & foremost, we are Christians & we love Jesus! We have 6 beautiful children – 4 biological, and 2 through adoption via foster care. My husband Gordon & I (Heidi) have been married for 11 years. My husband served in the military for almost 7 years & now works as a nurse in the ER. I stay home with our children!

Recently, we started the process to start renewing Foster Care license in order to take in another foster placement. But, during the process, God clearly began intervening. In the past few months, we have been in 2 car accidents, our AC unit died, paperwork has been filed on incorrect forms, fingerprint cards have been lost. You name it.

A while ago, I ran across the pictures of “Kristen” on Reeces Rainbow. She grabbed my heart. But, at the time, I knew my husband wasn’t feeling ready to adopt a child with significant special needs. So, I didn’t mention her to my husband. But very recently, my sister-in-law mentioned that a member of her family is going to be adopting from the Eastern Europe. And, well, that just so happens to be where this sweet little girl is from too! I felt the need to go back to her picture & felt very strongly God saying “This is your daughter”. It was unexplainable.

I texted my husband her photo & asked if he thought perhaps God had slowed us down with foster care in order for us to go get her. To my surprise, he said, “Babe, if you want to adopt a beautiful little girl from the Eastern Europe, then let’s do it!”

So, here we are! We have no idea where the money will come from but we are trusting the Lord.

1/22/2020 — COMPILING DOSSIER

$7,443.66
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Kathy will be adding another aging out child to her family! She returned home in May of 2018 with an almost 16-year-old with Down syndrome from Armenia. She is now working to bring home another daughter with DS from East Asia. This precious one has been on the hearts and minds of a lot of people who love her and have prayed for her. She was hosted in the US in the summer of 2016 by a family who hoped to adopt her but were unfortunately denied due to rules changing in the country. Kathy is grateful for the knowledge, experience, and love the family provided to her while she was here, and continue to provide.

Kathy’s first hands-on experience with international adoption was when her daughter and granddaughter, also with DS, returned home in December 2015 from Armenia. Her daughter is also in the process of adding another little one with DS to the family! While following her daughter’s first adoption and the years since, Kathy has helped as many families as she could, financially and prayerfully. She has also advocated for many children in need of families. Reading story after story about the life altering effects of adoption – for the child and parents – has been an inspiration to her.

After reading about the conditions children who have aged out face, and knowing those children would never know the love of a family, she knew she needed to do more. For the last few months Kathy has been contemplating and praying on what more she could do to help these children. So she is excited to announce that she is once again crossing the ocean to adopt again before this girl ages out and loses the chance to live happily ever after knowing the love and joy of having a family!

Any prayers and support, financially or emotionally, are greatly appreciated during her adoption process!

5/6/2020 — LOA RECEIVED

The Rice family has a $5000 matching grant from RODS Racing! When their FSP reaches $10,130, they’ll receive an additional $5000!

$10,289.82
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Jonathan and Leanne have known each other for as long as they can remember and have loved each other for over half of their lives. They were high school sweethearts which mostly consisted of passing notes to each other at church. They impatiently waited until Leanne was in college before they were allowed to officially date/court each other. After several challenging yet wonderful years, Jonathan and Leanne were able to get married while Jonathan was in college at Texas A&M and Leanne was teaching at a local elementary school.

The summer after Jonathan’s graduation and commissioning into the US Air Force, Leanne gave birth to their oldest daughter, Emily. Soon after her birth, they moved to Germany, and Jonathan started work as a second lieutenant. After almost ten years married and seven years in the military, Jonathan and Leanne have three biological children: Emily (age 7), Michael (age 5), and Ellen (age 3). Through adoption, they hope to add to their family very soon!

They are an active military family who have been blessed with adventures all over the world including (but not limited to) Texas, Germany, Alaska, and New Mexico. In 2013, they began their adoption journey with several attempts (international and through the foster system). Each ended with God closing the door. During this time, God opened their hearts to becoming foster parents. They have been licensed foster parents in both Alaska and New Mexico. Right after they became licensed in New Mexico in June 2019, they found out that they qualified to adopt Daniel (an eight year old boy from China with Down syndrome) who they had already tried to adopt the previous year. After several heartbreaking months of thinking it would be impossible to adopt Daniel, God miraculously re-opened this door! They are so excited to finally be moving forward with this adoption! With only months to go, they don’t want finances to be what delays them from going to adopt him and bring him home. God has provided exactly what they need so far, and they are thankful that you are considering being part of Daniel’s amazing adoption story!

3/13/2020 — AWAITING TRAVEL APPROVAL

$817.26
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Abby and Adam met in 2012 and were married the following year. They live in the Pacific Northwest with their two children Leo (4) and Magnolia (2). Abby is currently on pause from being a special education teacher and will return to the classroom once her children are in school full-time, and Adam works as an Account Director for a digital marketing agency. Adoption had always been in the back of Adam and Abby’s mind, and they were unsure of when the timing would be just “right.” After talking about it for a year they knew it was time and they were ready to figure it all out. Near the middle of their home study process, they received an advocacy email from their adoption agency and in an instant, they knew that they were looking at their son. They are excited to be on this journey and look forward to welcoming a third child to their family!

2/26/20 — FIRST TRIP in MARCH

$25.00
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Nathan and Stephanie Faught have been married for eleven years and have five wonderful children- three biological and two born in their hearts. During their engagement, the Lord started drawing them to hurting children through a ministry that serves families in the inner city. With big hearts and an open door policy, Nate and Stephanie quickly began filling their home with children to love, both biological and through the inner city ministry. Within the first five years of their marriage, they were parents to three babies/toddlers, and a teen. Although it seemed crazy to many, the Lord was all in it! He was clearly leading them down a path unlike what they had planned. As Proverbs 16:9 reminds us…”The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” From early on, they just wanted their steps ordered by Him.

In year 8 of their marriage, the Father brought them a handsome brave seven year old boy! What a gift this boy was to them. Amazingly, he is now their son. Many asked how they were able to take on so much, and their response always pointed others toward God. They continuously re-mind others that this journey of adding children to their family is His call on their lives. Adoption has come with it’s challenges; yet through the hard times, the Lord has always been faithful.

Fast forward to the following year… at a time when Nate and Stephanie just knew they couldn’t handle anymore changes in their lives… the Father placed a precious three year old girl into their laps. She came to them “just for respite”… two to four weeks max. God sure has a sense of humor because that little sweetness is now their daughter. AND… the most incredible part is that she has Down Syndrome. A special need the Faughts had never considered. In fact, they were quite intimidated by raising a special needs child…. BUT GOD… when they saw her picture… they did not see a child with Down Syndrome. They saw HER! She was a precious soul in need of love. They quickly learned that she was no different than the other children the Lord had brought them!

Adding her to their family has changed all of them in such a beautiful way! It’s one thing to read about the millions of orphans living in institutions and feel sad for them. But when someone be-comes mommy, daddy, or brother to one of those children, a true passion is developed. They’ve experienced first hand how being orphaned truly affects a child, and they all long to see each of these children find a forever family! The Faughts have also been shown the true value of these precious ones with special needs-specifically those with down syndrome. The Father showed them that while many have labeled these children a burden, they are truly one of His greatest treasures…fearfully and wonderfully made by Him.

This summer, a dear friend of theirs had an amazing opportunity to visit an orphanage in Asia to check on a handful of waiting children. The day she visited them, the whole Faught family was praying that each child would feel the Father’s love through her and that they would finally be found by their forever families. When the friend returned home, she posted pictures of the children she had met. Stephanie and her children sat at the table looking at their precious faces. When they came to a picture of a little girl with down syndrome dressed in yellow, their oldest son proclaimed, “Mom, that is our sister! Can we adopt her?” The other children quickly chimed in, “yes, mom, please!!!” Stephanie simply replied that they would just have to pray about it. When Nate returned home from work, he was met at the door with a picture of this sweet girl and begging little boys. He echoed Stephanie’s response that they just needed to pray. The brothers united together telling him that they pray for orphans all the time and they just knew this one was their sister. That week, they watched as their children prayed with such fervor. Nathan and Stephanie prayed too and the Lord confirmed that she was indeed their child! When Stephanie reached out to her friend to get some more information, her friend told her that the little girls advocacy name was “Stephanie”. She laughed out loud and thought to herself, “well, of course it is”.

The whole family is so excited to bring Stephanie home, hopefully early next year. They would love to see others join them on this journey, and they thank you in advance for all of your prayers and support!

Follow their journey on Instagram @bringinghomeveraellen or Facebook @ Bringing Home Vera Ellen.

3/16/2019 — AWAITING TRAVEL DATES

$7,163.45
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

https://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.png00Michelle Zoromskihttps://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.pngMichelle Zoromski2019-09-27 17:39:312019-12-18 10:50:59BOYD for the Romans family -- OR

Hi, we are the Cochran family, Mike, Grace, Natalie (5), and Jason (3). We are a military family stationed on the beautiful island of Okinawa. Mike is an EOD tech (explosive ordinance disposal) in the US Marine Corps. He has served 10 years and plans to retire. Grace is a stay at home homeschooling mama. We have been married for 9 years. We have had a heart for adoption for a very long time but it wasn’t until this year that we felt God telling us that it was our time. We took a leap of faith with a whole lot of nothing in our pocket back in June of this year. We watched God use what little we had and multiply it. Within a months’ time we had enough to fund our first payment and homestudy for our China adoption. In July Mike came home from deployment and we got to work. Within a month’s time we managed to compile our dossier and complete our homestudy (yes it is doable!) During that time frame I came across an advocacy post for this precious little girl with Down Syndrome. We knew she was the one! She will be 2 years old this October and shares the same birthday as her soon to be daddy. We hope to travel early next year. This journey has not been easy and we still have so far to go but every day is one step closer to her. We know that God has such amazing plans for her life, so much bigger and more beautiful than we can imagine. Thank you for the honor of sharing our story with you. Most importantly thank you for the prayers and support.

3/15/2020 — AWAITING TRAVEL APPROVAL

$1,576.15
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Beatrice’s hopeful family has loved orphans for many years, and is an experienced, international adoptive family. They were actively searching for a girl just like her with longing in their hearts, and were speechless when they saw her picture. They have been working hard to pursue her adoption ever since they gazed at her face. Beatrice’s family will lovingly shower her with sibling play, understanding love, gentleness, and unconditional patience. Her family loves nature walks, camping, reading and movies, making good music, and food and fellowship with other families in their homes. Since the moment Beatrice’s hopeful parents saw her photo, they not only melted together simultaneously in tears, but have worked as hard as humanly possible to wrap her in their arms. Their earnest hopes are only to facilitate God’s redemption in every part of her life! They cannot stop thinking of her and of all the ways God has already enabled them to adopt her.

Her family asks your prayers of protection for her and for them. They appreciate any help getting there!

3/15/2020 — DOSSIER COMPLETE

$1,202.76
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Dan and Tara Brooke are parents of four beautiful children. The oldest three were born biologically to the Brooke family, while their fourth, was born in their hearts. In 2016 the Brooke family was gifted with their youngest child, George, through adoption. Dan and Tara had felt a call to adopt, but didn’t know exactly what that meant until 2014 when they felt the call to adopt a child with Down Syndrome. George was an instant match to the Brooke family and has been such a tremendous gift to their lives. He has gifted them with more joy and love than they ever imagined. In late 2018 the Brooke’s felt a call again. They were unsure how they were going to make adoption work financially in their lives again, but knew that they were supposed to adopt once again. Early in 2019 they began that process. They have been matched to Zack Qi and are in the midst of dossier and immigration paperwork. They hope to travel late 2019 or early 2020 to bring Zack home to their family and make him a Brooke too! Zack is already a member of their family, the love is already there, they cannot wait to hold him, love him, and care for him.

3/13/2020 — AWAITING TRAVEL APPROVAL

$4,633.82
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Roderick and Melissa have been happily married for eight years and reside in a small town in Illinois with their five wonderful children Adeson (12), Emery (11), Jacob (9), Ella Grace (7) and Casey(5). Four of their five children were adopted internationally, two from China and two from Ethiopia. Rod and Melissa have been committed to adoption, and both they and their extended families have been foster parents, adoptive parents, and advocates for humanitarian and children’s rights. They are also parents to Melissa’s seven children from her first marriage of 17 years Brandon (34), Ryan (deceased), Alex (25), Matthew (23), Sara (20), Emily (17) and Antonio (17), Alex, and Antonio were also adopted, one at age eight and one at age four from Russia and Guatemala. They believe their family is their calling and feel blessed to have had the blessing of family and friends throughout their life journey.

The cost and process of international adoption, while intimidating they believe is far worth the journey. Rod and Melissa believe that completing their family through adoption is the right thing for them and are very excited about bringing home their new son who they found through Reece’s Rainbow, whom they will call Noah. If you can help them support their adoption journey, their family would be grateful.

Celebrating 21 years of marriage and nurturing 8 biological children, Jesse and Megan are excited to add another gift from God through adoption into their family. Megan was two years old when her brother with Down Syndrome died at age 5 in heart surgery. Even as a two year old, his death had a significant impact on her life. The soul-mate that she baby-talked with, took her first steps with, and raced to beat to the Wonder Rocking Horse had disappeared. Her sense of loss has given her a love and bond to children with Down Syndrome. Megan was introduced to Reece’s Rainbow by a friend over 10 years ago. Following and praying for families in their journey of adoption and praying for babies to find their adoptive parents through Reeces Rainbow, Jesse and Megan are taking that leap of faith that now is the time to fulfill the dream of being one of those families. After living as missionaries for 10 years over seas, in 2012, Jesse and Megan settled back home in Washington State onto their fifth generation family farm. The Pearsons also have a 12 years old niece and a 5 year old nephew that were both born with Down Syndrome living close by. This provides an instant support group and two like-minded cousins for their adopted child to grow up with.

3/12/2020 — FIRST TRIP COMPLETE; COURT in MARCH

$321.70
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We are the Browns! We are a family of 14 hoping to add one more to our crazy, wonderful life. Daniel and Svetlana met in Russia. Daniel was serving there as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After a year of being back in the United States, Daniel asked Svetlana to come here and be his wife. They have been married for over 22 years and have 12 amazing children ages: 5, 8, 9, 9, 12, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 20, 25.

Daniel is the oldest of 10 children. So, a big family is not a big deal to him. Daniel is also a high school teacher, and a Robotics Club Coach. Which, of course, helps in dealing with lots of children and the chaos that can ensue.

Svetlana grew up in Russia and is an only child. She always dreamed of a big family and adopting from an orphanage. She has taken several medical classes to help prepare her for the special needs of each child.

Their children are excited to have new siblings to love. Although the three oldest children are out of the home; They come back to visit, and help out, as often as possible. All of the children enjoy being able to love, work with, and watch the development of those less fortunate. They are looking forward to the great service of compassion that they will be able to give these special children.

The Brown family is hoping to add baby Kellen to their family. This precious child is in great need. He needs to come home soon, and get the medical attention they deserve, the love they need, and a family that has chosen them.

2/5/2020 — DOSSIER SUBMITTED

$3,532.99
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

Colin and Kym have been married sixteen years and have nine biological children. Colin is a firefighter/paramedic and Kym is a homeschooling Mom.

Since even before they were married, Colin and Kym talked about adopting one day. It has always been something that was on their hearts. They had several friends who had adopted, and Kym followed their stories and their blogs and passed along their stories to Colin. They were always curious about what those friends had said of their adopted children: “I just knew that child was mine.” They wondered: “What did that feel like, to look at the face of a child half the world away, and to know that child belonged to you?” It was a mystery to them.

One day, Kym was sitting at the computer following still another adoption story, when up popped the face of a little boy staring right back at her. That face. Those eyes. She knew instantly what her friends had meant when they had said they “knew.”

The face looking back at her was her son.

She immediately sent a text to Colin and asked that he check out the little guy’s file. He too was moved. But they already had nine kids of their own – one still a baby – they had a family trip which had already been planned, and Colin was looking at leaving one fire department to go work for another. It wasn’t a good time.

Three months later, when life was a bit slower, Kym asked Colin if he ever thought of that little guy. Without saying a word, Colin pulled his phone from his pocket, turned it on, and showed her the Reece’s Rainbow page that had been opened all that time. “I’ve never closed the file. I look at him every day,” Colin said quietly. And then he said, “I think we need to bring him home.”

Obviously, the budget is tight when you’ve got nine kids eating you out of house and home, so Colin simply trusts and prays daily: “God, I’m just a lowly firefighter with a firefighter’s salary. If this is supposed to happen, You’re going to have to come up with the money to make it happen.” And so far, GOD HAS PROVIDED! For every piece of paperwork, document submittal, or fingerprinting appointment, God has provided them with the exact funds they have needed to pay for those things at the time they have needed them.

There is still so much to be done and more money to be found, but they have great confidence that all will come through at the time it is meant to, so they forge ahead and eagerly prepare their kids, their hearts, and their home, for the new little Fachling who will join them next year.

3/11/2019 — COURT in MARCH

$3,979.33
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

We started this journey to grow our family through adoption March 1st,2018 answering the call to adoption. We began the paperwork trail for homestudy and were joyed to have found a beautiful little Down syndrome girl “Penny” that we began to advocate for and had moved on to the adoption list (She was placed in a facility that was for the “UNADOPTABLES, UNWANTED, NOBOBY WOULD EVER WANT”). We then completed our home study applying for grant after grant being turned down but continued to do yard sales, and fundraiser after fundraiser to meet our next deadline of financials of a total of $12,600. February 1st is when our family was register with the foreign government to adopt that registration would be the start of a really long wait. In February our Journey was turned upside down with the announcement that our family would have to switch agencies and start over to continue the Journey! We could not STOP. We did not give up on the HOPE God had placed on our hearts for a child, and now a child that we had gotten moved because she was worthy, ALL the Children at that facility is worthy and belong and families and not be left to die. We drained our savings and everything that we had saved that we had hoped would finished our adoption, and started over! Literally started over including a Homestudy update! Time completely seemed to slow down and myself and husband began to wonder if our hopes and our PROMISE of adopting would ever happen.

On Aug. 16th,2019 we received I 800 A approval; August 19th,2019 We received the long awaited approval from the foreign government allowing us to move forward and finally match with a child. Our family had prayed many times that God would ready the child that we were to have when we Got approval. Particularly, That God would shield little Penny, and that she would be ready for us to match with (This was momma’s prayer. You know its funny how sometimes we ask specifics from God but we keep saying LORD YOUR WILL! He quickly reminded me that I had limited him and that he was writing this story and I had done just what I needed to do at this point and I just needed to BOW down to him and he had it from there.)

Our family had advocated for Penny and where was she? She was not on the list and this was hard to understand why had all this time had passed and she was not on the list when we felt strongly she was ours. No she was not ours she. We had gotten her listed because with her NOT listed she had no hope. We were her fight to get on that list. We did just what a advocate is suppose to do fight for the defenseless. God had destined us to match the beautiful little girl that he had picked out for our family before time. She is a bright brown eyed girl with brown hair and glasses and a smile that just illuminated our hearts. Her name will be Piper. This is the child we had prayed for. We signed the papers and are now needing the final funds. Our family has already been accepted for two grants for travel so literally we are just needing to meet this final hurdle of $5,000 to bring her home. Piper is 6 year old, she has Down syndrome, congenital heart disease, possible hearing loss in left ear. There is still some uncertainty with her medical but even more urgent need to get her here so we can get her the medical attention that is needed!

We have given everything to GOD and we know that he WILL PROVIDE.

3/3/2020 — PASSED COURT; AWAITING TRAVEL

$2,164.07
has been donated towards the cost of our adoption!

Make the most of your gift, consider sending a check! Online donations to children with committed families incur a 3% PayPal transaction fee.

https://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.png00Michelle Zoromskihttps://reecesrainbow.org/wp-content/uploads/officialrrlogo350web-3.pngMichelle Zoromski2019-08-30 18:01:132020-03-03 16:13:18KATE for the House Family -- NC